Kodi can be moved to external USB or MicroSD storage on Fire OS 5 and 2nd-Gen Fire TV

Last week I wrote about a change in Fire OS 5 that prevents apps from freely writing to external storage without first explicitly asking for permission. Since the stable release of Kodi has not yet been updated to ask for this permission, it prevents owners of 2nd-gen Fire TVs from moving Kodi’s database and/or thumbnail files to any directory they want on external storage. Thanks to a tip from CCIE_Study on Reddit and jocala on XDA, it turns out all apps, including Kodi, can freely write to their own sandboxed external directory in Fire OS 5 without having to first ask for permission. This means it’s possible to move Kodi files to external USB drives or microSD cards on the 2nd-gen Fire TV. I’ve updated my guide for moving all or some of Kodi’s files to external storage to work with all versions of the Fire TV and all types of external storage.

23 comments

Assuming I have a few GB free still on the box itself, is there any reason or advantage to doing this? I did buy a 64gb sd card for my new FTV2, but I’m not sure it was really necessary, since I have never been close to running out of space. I initially bought it thinking I would set Kodi up to use more catching, but per your advice, it sounds like that doesn’t really gain much. thanks

The only advantage is not running out of space. You only have to install a couple of big games to use most of the disk. Kodi itself can eat up more than its share as it collects thumbnails and cache, and more again if you go in for the whole library & fanart caper. As will any video streaming service.

I haven’t done a real benchmark yet, but I’m using a MicroSD rated at 80 mb/s. There is a bit of lag when you first load up Kodi, but after about ten seconds, it works fairly close to how it does normally. Updating the library took a little longer than it did on the HD, but for daily refreshes, not a noticeable difference.

How is anyone able to connect a USB storage to a Fire TV2 when that option is disabled by Amazon? I verified that with a tech support from Amazon as well. I tried plugging in a 2 TB drive and my Fire TV would not even see it.
My Fire TV1 works fine.

If you havent already…Download es file Explorer on ur fire tv. it will allow you to download any movie and see dictate where to save it….it also allows you to download a clean version of kodi without the use of a computer. (You might already know this,if so my apologies).

To choose were to save kodi movies or tv shows or whatever you need to go to Es file explorer,download if you don’t have already,then TOOLS on the left hand panel and go down to SETTINGS then DIRECTORIE SETTINGS and go to DOWNLOAD PATH ,were you can choose what external device you want to store your files on.took me few days to work this out so thought I’d share if you didn’t know already.

If you have two Fire TVs, can you clone Kodi and all of the custom settings and addons to an SD card OR to a flash drive? If you can use an SD or flash drive, how much space is needed? Do you need a 64gb or smaller? Which brand of SD card OR flash drive works best with AFTV?

I tried full and it was too slow on a USB memory stick. Restored it back to the AFTV and then tried just the thumbnails and can attest that it’s the sweet balance between getting more internal space and speed. Thanks for such an easy guide. You make it easy with copy/paste commands and clear simple instructions.

Just upgraded to the rooted new AFTV software and this method still works for thumbnails. It appears like they took away the option to move apps to the USB Stick and that you now have to buy a microSD card to do that.